This Time
by everyrosehasitsthornxx
Summary: Jace changed the way Clary was for six months. When Clary finally has enough, what will happen to Jace? AH & song-fic


**Disclaimer: Once upon a time ago, I thought I was Cassandra Clare but I woke up. So, I'm not the talented Cassie who wrote the MI. I only own the plot. And the song (This Time) also belongs to the wonderful and talented Pia Toscano. If you're reading this, this time is my favorite song currently!**

_Well I'm mad as hell__  
><em>_I ain't gon' take it no more__  
><em>_My bag is packed up at the back of your door_

Enough was enough and Clary had more than enough. She just wasn't going to deal with him anyone, take it anymore. Even though she as threatened many times before that if he didn't shape up his act, that she was going to get her bags and leave, she never followed through.

But _this _time, her bags where packed at the back of his door. No, Clary wasn't going to take any more crap from Jace Wayland anymore.

She had enough.

_'Cause I don't know who I am no more__  
><em>_You won the battle but you lost the war__  
><em>_I've been in denial, now I'm living the truth__  
><em>_Been down for a while, now I'm standing up to you_

Jace made her into something he wanted her to be, not who she was. That's all he saw in her – potential to _be _something he wanted her to be, not who she actually _was_. He won for a time, Clary had become like clay and Jace was the potter. He had made her bend to this way and that, made into something that she wasn't.

He had succeeded into making her into a perfect girl that he wanted but he lost. Because no sooner than he achieved that, I was going to leave. I was going to leave and never come back.

For a time, Clary realized, she had thought that maybe Jace would come to his senses and realized that he actually did like her, _for _her. But she had waited long enough for him to realized that. Now, I realized the truth that had been staring at me in the face for the past six months.

No, Clary wasn't going to stay any longer. Not in this hellhole. Not with being someone that she wasn't. And especially not with Jace. 

_This time, this time I'm gonna do it my away__  
><em>_This time, I'm finding out the hard away__  
><em>_This time, I'm gonna go back to the girl I was on the night you found me_

This time, she wasn't going to be the slab of gray clay that she was before. She was going to be who she was. She had given up everything she had loved for him – including her beloved art. But I realized, after six painstakingly long moths that a guy wasn't suppose to change her. That he was suppose to like her, for her.

Six long months to realize that she could do better.

And she was going back to the way she was before, and she was going to forget the six months that happened. She was going to learn from it though – never, was she going to change herself, for anyone. If they didn't like her, that was their problem.

_No more, closing back the real me__  
><em>_Just wait, in a minute you'll see__  
><em>_This time, is in time, it's my time__  
><em>_Getting back to the real me_

She was going back to her t-shirts and jeans, back to her paints, to her braids. No, I wasn't going to shut the door that was the real me, the one that's hidden behind the door for six months too many.

Now, Jace was going to see her, for what she really was. He was going to see that what she was, her true shining self. Clary smiled when she looked down at her attire: a red paint splattered t-shit with blue overalls on top, with her favorite lime green sneakers.

Reaching to her laces, she took off the key, the key that she didn't need any more, not if she was going to be herself. This key belonged to Jace, not her.

Clary was going to embrace who she really was.

_Don't try to stop me with the words you say__  
><em>_'Cause I'm sick and tired of the games you play_

Jace, of course, not wanting what he spent six months of his life perfecting, wasn't going to let her go that easily. But Clary didn't pay him any heed. She was feed up with him and feed up with this life.

She hated the games he played with her, as if she was a pawn in a chess game rather than an actual, living, breathing human being.

_I'm gonna free myself, gonna make a change__  
><em>_And like a butterfly, I'mma spread my wings__  
><em>_Been crying for too long, now I'm drying my eyes__  
><em>_Grounded for so long, now it's time for me to fly_

Jace stopped her from walking out the back door, his hand around her upper arm. But Clary wasn't going to listen, no, Clary wasn't going to even look at him. he wasn't worth it.

She pulled her arm free from his grasp, not even looking at him. She opened the door, to the bright and sunny day. One that was going to greet her any second now.

She stepped out the door and felt, for once in her life, free, like a butterfly that was flying from a flower a few seconds ago. Clary felt like she could breathe again, be free again. She was held down by a dead weight too long, one that wanted her to be different.

Now, Clary was going to spread her arms.

And fly.

_This time, this time I'm gonna do it my away__  
><em>_This time, I'm finding out the hard away__  
><em>_This time, I'm gonna go back to the girl I was on the night you found me__  
><em>_No more, closing back the real me__  
><em>_Just wait, in a minute you'll see__  
><em>_This time, is in time, it's my time__  
><em>_Getting back to the real me_

Breathing in the sweet air, and taking in the warm sunshine, Clary took off in her car, not even sparing the house she was pent up in for the last miserable months in. With a roar of her engine, she speed down the street, bursting with joy.

Opening her door, she found it exactly the way she found it, untouched by Jace, untainted. The first thing she did was run in her house – with her shoes on, something that Jace _hated _– and go into her art studio.

Painting for the first time in months.

_This time, this time I'm gonna do it my away__  
><em>_This time, I'm finding out the hard away__  
><em>_This time, I'm gonna go back to the girl I was on the night you found me__  
><em>_No more, closing back the real me__  
><em>_Just wait, in a minute you'll see__  
><em>_This time, is in time, it's my time__  
><em>_Getting back to the real me_

**Five years later…**

Clary stood in an emerald floor length grown that was strapless, at her very own art show. Ever since she left, she was determined to prove him wrong, to show that art had meaning.

Izzy, her best friend who wasn't into her kind of art – more like that art of dressing up – helped her pick out the dress, saying it made her eyes pop. It was bedazzled with shiny white crystals at the, stopping at the end of her breast, and flowed out from her waist into tears.

Her earrings held emerald earrings surround by the same crystal that was on her dress, with a matching bracelet. Her neck was bare other than a small, unflashy silver plain necklace, her only item from her past.

The necklace usually held a ring but the ring didn't go with the rest of her attire, so she took the ring off, saving the chain. She only held on to that item – Jace had given her the ring but since it was too big for her slender fingers, he gave her the silver necklace – to show herself how far she had come.

To show what a little determination could do.

Her eyes held golden ones, and her heart lept to her throat. Only one person had those eyes.

Jace.

He walked towards Clary after connecting eyes. "Jace," she greeted.

"Clary," he nodded, showing his approval. "Nice art show. I guess you were right."

"Thanks," she replied curtly, trying to make him leave. Izzy even gave him a piercing gaze with her black eyes. Izzy was, in Clary's mind, far prettier than her. With long black hair that reached her waist and matching eyes, that already gave her a few points. She was slender, but she had all the right curves and she was tall, with the best fashion sense ever. Everything a guy could ask for.

And of course, that guy had to be none other than my best friend, Simon.

"Do you," he asked, hesitantly, feeling guilty about what he did in the past. He never meant to change her, he truly did love her and after she left, after the anger cooled down, he realized how bad he was, all this time. And he was going to make it right.

"Do you want to grab coffee later?" he started over, asking her the question with hopeful eyes.

She blinked at him and stared at him with a blank face for a second. "I'm sorry Jace, but I'm already engaged." True to her word, there was a big diamond and emerald ring around her finger and he wondered how he could be so stupid to not realize this before.

"Oh, congrats. Who's the lucky guy?" Really, that guy was truly lucky and despite the pain, Jace knew he deserved this. He wouldn't have been facing this issue if he didn't treat her the way he had. Yet, five years couldn't change his feelings for her, even when he found out the she was engaged.

"Will Herondale." And on cue, a handsome guy with black hair and stunning blue eyes appeared next to her, matching her dress with the same shade of an emerald green tie.

"Nice to meet you," Jace said, but not shaking his hand. Jace couldn't shake his hand, he was afraid that he was going to end up ripping it off if he did. Jace knew he deserved this - even if he still wanted her for the past five years - and he walked away without a word, Clary glancing at his back momentarily.

She couldn't help but wonder, how life would be if Jace didn't try changing her.

But his time has passed.

* * *

><p>Aw, yeah, bittersweet…Jace can't always get the ladies….but who said Will can't :P (that's for those who read Cassie Clare's Infernal Devices)<p>

So…hope you guys liked it. AND IT'S JUST A SONG-FIC…maybe it has potential, *thinks of a great way to continue it* grr, too many ideas. But seriously, if someone adds this to story alert, I'm going to shoot myself. Well, not really, but I will be annoyed.

Sorry about the rant….^^

Review…por favor. Yes, I know, my Spanish is amazing :P

~Icyfirelove3

P.S. Check out the stories I beta for! All of Bookninja15's stories (too many to list out but a lot of MI ones), Skyecelade99's Parallel Hearts, CoolxNerd's You Should Have Stayed and MollyGM's City of Bones Jace POV! All = fantastic so check them out! And don't forget about mine other ones too :P

P.S.S. Still going...one last three day update and I'm done. Yup, vacation is going to start soon :)


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